OREANDA-NEWS. December 10, 2009. Starting from December 10, 2009 on FORTS, futures and options market of RTS, futures-style options on the following underlying assets will be launched:

futures contract on refined silver

futures contract on MMC NORILSK NICKEL ordinary shares

futures contract on Polyus Gold ordinary shares

futures contract on Rosneft ordinary shares

futures contract on Surgutneftegas ordinary shares

futures contract on Transneft privileged shares

futures contract on VTB Bank ordinary shares

The options contracts that are already trading with the settlement date in 2010 will be replaced with futures-style options as they are settled.

For the first time futures-style options on the RTS Index futures were introduced on February 27, 2009. The size of the first delivery under the futures-style options on the RTS Index futures stood at 2,636,048,233.26 rubles or 55,020 contracts which exceeded the size of the previous delivery by more than 3 times.

Futures-style options are a completely new instrument on the Russian derivatives market which opens up major new opportunities for market participants. Introduction of this instrument will allow market participants to receive daily liquidity on profitable positions without exercising or selling an options contract. Thanks to the single marking-to-market system, market participants can manage portfolios comprised of futures and options more effectively, providing for a qualitative development of the options market.

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is the leading trading venue for futures and options in Russia. Trading on FORTS started in September 2001. At present FORTS has the widest range of instruments in Russia. These are 47 contracts (34 futures and 13 options) on shares of Russian companies, bonds, short term interest rates, currency, RTS Index, oil, silver, diesel oil, sugar and gold.